How to watch Frankie Muniz's NASCAR races: Schedule, TV info for 2023 ARCA Menards Series season

Shortly after the birth of his young son, Frankie Muniz realized he needed to go for it. He didn’t want the boy to grow up knowing his father as Frankie Muniz, actor. He wanted his son to know him as Frankie Muniz, NASCAR driver.

Muniz wants his son to see his father chasing and realizing dreams. And stock-car racing has long been an aspiration for the 37-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona.

The 2023 season marks the beginning of Frankie Muniz’s NASCAR journey as a full-time driver for Rette Jones Racing in the ARCA Menards Series, a Midwest-based sanctioning body that functions as a feeder series for NASCAR’s three national touring series: the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series. NASCAR gained ownership of ARCA in 2018.

RELATED: Why Frankie Muniz is racing in the ARCA Menards Series

While Muniz acquired fame at a young age through his work acting on the critically acclaimed “Malcolm in the Middle” TV show among other projects, he developed a passion for racing. Which is why he put his acting career on hold in the late 2000s.

More than a decade later, and after injuries temporarily halted his racing efforts, Muniz‘s love for the sport persists. And he’s cherishing his opportunity with a quality ARCA team like RJR.

“We‘ve talked about this for almost a year and a half and kept thinking I would be on track sooner than I was,” Muniz said in January. “I‘m throwing myself off the deep end by joining [ARCA], and I wanted to have a team behind me that would teach me as much as I need to learn. I feel like I‘m ready.”

Muniz is running for the ARCA Menards Series championship in 2023, meaning he is scheduled to compete in all 20 races on the tour’s schedule.

Below is how to watch all of Frankie Muniz’s NASCAR races in the ARCA Menards Series.

How to watch Frankie Muniz’s NASCAR races: Schedule, TV channel

The NASCAR-owned ARCA Menards Series features a 20-race schedule that begins in conjunction with February’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and ends in October at the series’ home track, Toledo Speedway.

All 20 ARCA Menards Series races in 2023 are scheduled to broadcast live on either FS1 or FS2, with a live stream for each event available on either the Fox Sports App or FloRacing, NASCAR’s home for live grassroots racing.

Below is the complete 2023 ARCA Menards Series schedule and how to watch/listen to each race.

Frankie Muniz’s racing history

Although Muniz does not have much experience in NASCAR or ARCA cars, he does enter his rookie season in the series with racing experience on his side.

The Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race served as the springboard for Muniz‘s racing career. After finishing seventh and third overall in the 2004 and 2005 editions, respectively, Muniz wanted to become more involved in motorsports. He joined the Champ Car Atlantic Series in 2007, one year after “Malcolm in the Middle” ended.

Muniz spent the next three years in the Atlantic Championship gradually improving his race craft with the goal of joining the IndyCar Series for the 2010 season. When that deal fell through as a result of injuries sustained in a road racing crash, Muniz took a sabbatical from racing to focus on other ventures like drumming and getting back into acting.

Now that he has a family of his own, Muniz wanted to set the best example possible for his young son and realized he still aspired to have a racing career. He finally made his stock car debut in a Pro Late Model at Kern County Raceway Park in 2021 before testing a car for Fast Track Racing at Daytona International Speedway a few months later.

Muniz expressed some frustration over his own decision to step away from racing, but he is now fully committed to working with everyone at Rette Jones Racing and show the entire industry he is capable of being competitive despite the prolonged absence.

“If you want to do anything successfully, you really need to give 100 percent,” Muniz said. “If you want to be a race car driver, you need to be that in everything from training to just being with the team. I wish I hadn‘t waited so long [to get back into racing], because realistically I‘m old to be getting started in the stock car world, but I don‘t have time to waste, so hopefully [the motivation] helps the progression go a little quicker.”

The original plan was for Muniz to serve as a teammate to Amber Balcaen during the 2022 ARCA Menards Series season, but co-owner Mark Rette decided against this option so he could devote all the team‘s resources towards ensuring Muniz was in the best possible position to excel in 2023 with Balcaen not returning.

Muniz also recalls how his other co-owner Terry Jones nearly won the 2017 Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona before getting passed late by Austin Theriault for the win. He believes having both Rette and Jones to lean on for advice will help him get more acclimated to the draft ahead of his first Daytona race.

“[On the drive down to Daytona], I learned Terry was a bit of a maniac behind the wheel,” Muniz said. “He was drafting the semi-trucks on the freeway and told me that‘s what it was going to be like [during the weekend]. It‘s been so cool to hang with Terry and Mark and hear some of their stories. I want to make them proud of their decision to put me in this car.”

Gaining respect amongst his seasoned peers is the top priority for Muniz in the ARCA Menards Series. He has been appreciative of the support many in the industry have provided him through the process, and he hopes their confidence in his driving ability is maintained as the year progresses.

Any triumph for Muniz would put him in a similar category to other actors who had successful auto racing ventures like Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Patrick Dempsey, but Muniz said he wants the motorsports aspect of his life to be at the forefront while competing in ARCA.

“I want people to think of me as a race car driver,” Muniz said. “People don‘t think of Paul Newman as a race car driver, they think of him as an actor. If people can take me seriously as a driver, that would be really cool for me, but I‘m running my own program with my own goals.”

Contributing: Brandon White